On November 23, 2004, Rob Pardo and his team at Blizzard Entertainment wrapped up four years of development on World of Warcraft. It quickly became the most popular massively multi-player online game ever, with more than 6 million subscribers each paying up to $15 a month to access its fantastic realms. (At the peak of its popularity, EverQuest had only about half a million subs.)

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I started playing a year ago and have become custodian of We Know, a guild of about 250 people worldwide: medics, CEOs, bartenders, mothers, soldiers, students. We assemble in-game to mount epic six-hour raids that require some members to wake at 4 am and others to stay up all night. Outside the game, we stay in touch using online forums, a wiki, blogs, and a mailing list – plus a group voice chat, which I’ve connected to my home stereo so I can hear the guild’s banter while I’m cooking dinner. I have never been this addicted to anything before. My other hobbies are gone. My daily blogging regimen has taken a hit. And my social life revolves more and more around friends in the game.

MMORPGs are not new – I played one of the first through the Essex University computer network in the early 1980s. Back then, everything was text, and MMORPGs were a nerdy subculture of the then-minuscule online world. But Blizzard synthesized the accomplishments of all past role-playing games and added the rich gameplay and narratives of its previous Warcraft games. There are four basic draws in any MMORPG: the ability to socialize, an achievement system that gives players an incentive to improve, complex and satisfying strategy that makes combat fun, and an underlying narrative that players want to learn more about. Pardo’s group nailed all of these. Blizzard also updates the game continuously, adding features and addressing user requests. Later this year, an expansion will add new zones and 10 more experience levels – particularly great for players like me who have maxed out at level 60. Pardo’s team also deserves credit for creating a system that allows players themselves to customize their interfaces and code modifications to improve their WoW experience.

The quality and the popularity of World of Warcraft has propelled MMORPGs from a subculture into the mainstream; some call it the new golf. But it’s more than that: World of Warcraft is millions of people with diverse backgrounds collaborating, socializing, and learning while having fun. What we’re experiencing with this game is similar to the “adhocracy” of many successful open source software projects. It represents the future of real-time collaborative teams and leadership in an always-on, diversity-intensive, real-time environment. World of Warcraft is a glimpse into our future.